Adam Lynch, whose bored demeanor during bank stick-ups earned him the moniker the “Ho-Hum Bandit,” was in the grip of a major depressive episode when he robbed more than a dozen banks, a psychologist testified Tuesday.

Lynch, 36, never had problems with the law before launching a string of bank robberies in January 2010, Jane Wells said during a sentencing hearing that is scheduled to continue on Friday.

Lynch, an Irish citizen who moved to the U.S. as a teen, is suspected of robbing banks in San Diego, Los Angeles, Cheyenne, Wyo., Seattle, and Colorado.

He has pleaded guilty to bank hits in Wheat Ridge, Loveland and Edgewater, and Cheyenne.

Wells said Lynch was able to manage his depression for years, but in 2009 “things began to unravel.”

He abandoned a successful dog-care business he ran with his then-wife in Corte Madera, Calif., a wealthy Bay Area town, and walked out on his marriage, Wells said.

He gave little thought to leaving that comfortable life behind, making the decision in a “heart beat,” Wells said.

Lynch isn’t psychotic, but his thinking was so distorted as a result of depression that he was “almost to the point of being psychotic,” Wells said. “My opinion is that without this major depression he wouldn’t be here for bank robbery.”

His problems were exacerbated by a bout with testicular cancer, Wells said. And he stopped taking an anti-depression medication months before he committed his first robbery.

Cognitive distortion caused him to believe that robbery was the only option he had to get the money he needed, in part to help his girlfriend, Julia Lundstrom.

Though Lynch has pleaded guilty to three counts of bank robbery, he has agreed to pay restitution to six other banks in Colorado, for a total of $27,204.

He faces up to 20 years in prison, though his plea agreement could reduce his time to between 57 and 137 months.

He also faces charges in California.

His spree ended when he confessed his crimes to Lundstrom.

The couple, who had lived together in Denver, were separated when they agreed to meet at Fado Irish Pub in Lower Downtown to discuss their future. Lynch begged to get back together and to prove he wanted to come clean, he told her he was the Ho-Hum Bandit, Jefferson County sheriff’s investigator Tom Acierno of the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force said after Lynch was arrested.

“He showed her the FBI website on his mobile phone and she saw his picture and that he was wanted for bank robbery,” Acierno said. “She tried to keep him calm and keep him there.”

His gambit flopped when Lundstrom walked out of the bar and called Denver police.

Lynch was arrested at the bar in the early morning hours of April 19, 2011.

A general assignment reporter for The Denver Post, Tom McGhee has covered business, police, courts, higher education and breaking news. He came to The Post from Albuquerque, N.M., where he worked for a year and a half covering utilities. He began his journalism career in New York City, worked for a pair of community weeklies that covered the west side of Manhattan from 14th Street to 125th Street.

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